9Chapter 5: Back to the Hills
Tails, Rouge, and Amy waited by the workshop for the blue hero. Within minutes of Tails' urge to hurry, the hedgehog was standing by their side.
"No problems?" Rouge asked. Sonic shook his head, his eyes alight with excitement.
"Where to now, Tails?" he asked. Tails took out the map that Graves had given him.
"According to this, there are two more bases in Green Hill Zone," answered the fox scientist. Everyone rolled his or her eyes simultaneously at this. "What's wrong with Green Hill?" Tails asked.
"I just wonder when Eggman will finally be done trying to use it as his personal testing ground…" Amy mumbled. The kitsune merely sighed.
"Could we just save the complaining for after we stop the Marauders?" wondered Rouge. Fox and hedgehogs nodded, and the group set off toward the bridge. Once the buildings and pavement had once again melted into the trees and rock formations of the splendid Zone, Tails stopped the run and pointed to the beach at the east.
"There's a star marker near the islet off the beach over there!" shouted the fox.
"Awesome…" Sonic commented sarcastically. "Over my favorite element into the abandoned base of my favorite person…"
"Don't sweat it, Big Blue," cooed Rouge. "I'll take that one, so you can relax those tired muscles."
"Did he ask you to do it for him?!" Amy bellowed, her face flushing from bubble-gum pink to scarlet. A gloved hand touched her red-clad shoulder.
"If you're busy with this Dexter guy, why are you still biting the head off of any girl who talks to me?" asked the blue owner of said hand. "For Chaos' sake, Amy, do you think you're Ozzy Osborne or something?" Three pairs of eyes locked onto Sonic's. "What?" the hedgehog shrugged. Tails just shook his head, and he and Rouge flew off to find out what lay in store at the small island to the east.
xxx
Two figures darkened the opening of the small cave, while the forgotten technology of the base continued its sleep undisturbed.
"Jackpot…" said the bat, eyeing the security door at the back. The twin-tailed fox nodded and they continued forward. Like what had happened before, the door opened to reveal a staggering and bewildered SWATbot. It lumbered toward the duo, but it froze in the middle of its path. Rouge made to close the gap with the sharp end of her boot, but the kit stopped her.
"Look at it, Rouge," he said. "It looks almost sad…"
"Says the one who could dismantle that thing in three minutes and confirm that it has no emotions," chuckled Rouge in her silky voice. "C'mon, honey, let's just get the job done." Tails nodded reluctantly, and they ran forward, each of them landing a respectable hit on the SWATbot's arms. This caused the sick robot to spin rapidly and fall to the ground. Knowing what would come next, the vulpine quickly retrieved the communicator from the enemy's chest cavity.
"Let's get outta here…" Tails muttered. "I don't like the fact that Buttnik's stuff is still out to get us…" Rouge put an arm around the fox's shoulder, and they headed out of the lonely area together.
xxx
"Come on, guys… We're waaaaaiiitiiiiing!" Sonic complained, tapping his foot as he rested against a tree. The missing teammates were back soon afterward.
"The last marker is a bit north of here…" announced Tails, pointing to the star near the eastern bridge. There was a general consensus of affirmation, and the troop made their way north to the bridge. Sitting on the ground near the disassembled path to the eastern mountain was a tall teenage boy with short sandy hair.
"Is someone there?" the boy said uncertainly.
"Yeah…" said Sonic, quirking an eye ridge. The stranger's eyes brightened, and he looked up toward the hedgehog.
"I'd know that voice anywhere! It's Sonic the Hedgehog!" he exclaimed, making his way very carefully to the hero. The blue blur looked at the place where the boy had been resting and noted with some surprise that there was some sort of folded walking stick on the ground. "I was going to Emerald Hill, but when I got to the bridge, I almost lost my cane over the edge," continued the teenager. "Someone must've deactivated it… Could you fix it, Sonic? All you need are four people who can press the activation buttons."
"No problem!" the azure hero shouted in a generic tone of glee. To demonstrate his readiness, he stood on one of the red switches that controlled the sectioned bridge. The piece closest to the ground elevation swung on its axis and came to rest on the tread that held it in place. Amy followed suit with the parallel pressure-activated button, and the second portion locked in. Tails and Rouge easily crossed the gap to the other side and put down the final parts, completing the bridge. Sonic left his position near the bridge, picked up the boy's cane, and handed it to him.
"Thanks, Sonic!" cried the boy, unfolding the cane and walking to the bridge. He tapped the cane to either side in front of him, and soon he was gone up the mountain path.
"What a strange guy…" Tails mused. After everyone had crossed the sturdy bridge, the fox led the way to a cave that had been etched in the side of the mountain. "I think this is it, team!" cheered the kit as he looked inside. "Knuckles could be here!"
"Yay!" shouted Amy. All four Mobians charged in, but they stopped in their tracks when the security hatch opened to reveal a small hoard of SWATbots and sentry drones.
"You ready, Amy?" Sonic asked, looking back at the pink hedgehog. "Got something I wanna try…" She nodded, repelling her hammer with one fluid motion. Sonic charged a Spin Dash, and the cotton-candy rodent brought the Piko-Piko back. In a croquet-like motion, Amy gave the blue ball a good whack, and he went spinning into the air. The SWATbots stood with their legs at shoulder length, and Sonic easily passed through them on his way to the curved wall. The blue projectile zoomed up the side of the cavern, and each of the six flying drones was taken out in a clean arc of cerulean spines. As he landed, the hedgehog waggled his finger at the smoldering droids. "Remember, kids," he taunted. "Quantity is definitely not the same as quality." The SWATbots weren't about to let him pull the maneuver off without retribution, however, for all four of them were gathered around and ready to strike.
"You wish, sugar!" Rouge shouted, withdrawing several sharp throwing spears and chucking them at the soldiers. Each of the counterfeit gems sparkled as it sailed through the air and into its target's head.
"Nice aim, Rouge!" cheered Tails. The decapitated SWATbots bumbled and collided with each other, causing all four to fall and allowing the team to search their corpses for the next communicator.
"Found it!" said Amy, beaming. "This one's weird, though…"
"Lemme see it," Tails suggested, taking the object. The other three devices had been rather clunky, but none of them had the strange three-pronged cord protruding from the antenna. "I think I could use this one to make the device we can use to track the Marauders!" he announced. "Let's get back to my workshop, team!"
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A bubble of white light filled the dank interior of the abandoned area, and the dull gray armor of Procurator Shade could be seen emerging from its luminous shell.
"All clear," said Shade's distorted voice. Three scouts stepped through the bubble, and it disappeared.
"For the love of Ix, what happened here?" one of the scouts asked, gazing at the heaps of destroyed robots.
"They've been here already, that's what…" replied another. "Master Shade, we are deeply sorry that these pathetic things weren't able to keep the one called Sonic here."
"Worry not, Talik," Shade assured the minion. "Better to have them all in one place than to have to keep guards all over this forsaken place…" The mysterious leader then turned to the open vault. "There is likely something that they've forgotten in there. Go and search it." The scouts obeyed, hesitantly crossing the threshold one by one. Several minutes later, they came back out with armloads of heavy-looking machinery.
"We managed to find something that the Imperator will like…" one of them reported to Shade. "It seems to be an organic energy transfer device. Would he want that for the Nocturne?"
"I can see him using it, yes…" replied Shade. "Let's get out of this place. I can smell its stench through my armor…" The Procurator pressed a button, and all four of the Marauders were gone in another bubble of light.